As a result of Felcman and Healey’s announcement that they would seek the death penalty, Bart Whitaker refused to make a plea of not guilty before Judge Clifford J. Vacek. Bart’s attorneys blamed the state for not agreeing to a plea bargain as the reason why Bart did not take responsibility for the murders. Judge Vacek entered a plea of not guilty on Bart’s behalf.
It would be several months before talks of trial dates would surface. In April 2006, the first dates were penciled in for January 2007. By May, Bart Whitaker’s trial was solidified for January 16, 2007. No trial dates were secured for Steven Champagne and Chris Brashear. Felcman, however, was in negotiations with attorneys for both men. The prosecution did not inform the press as to whether or not they would seek the death penalty for Bart’s two accomplices.
By December 2007, the first talks of legal ramifications for Steven Champagne cropped up. Only, it wasn’t for an actual trial, but, rather, for a plea bargain. Champagne declared that he would “testify truthfully” against both Bart Whitaker and Chris Brashear in their respective trials in exchange for a fifteen-year prison term for his participation in the murders. The announcement was made by Fort Bend County ADA Jeff Strange, who stated, “This agreement was appropriate after examining the evidence in this case and the roles each party’s played in the murders.”
Gordon Dees, Steven Champagne’s attorney, seemed pleased with the result of the plea deal for his client. “We feel like what we are doing is right. The agreement speaks for itself.”
Champagne’s willing participation would come soon enough. Bart Whitaker’s trial date had been pushed back slightly, to January 22. It would be less than a week before a jury would be chosen, and Bart Whitaker would finally face a jury of his peers for masterminding the murders of his mother and brother.
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December 29, 2006
Richmond, Texas
A few weeks before Bart Whitaker’s trial was scheduled to commence, First ADA Fred Felcman received something very unusual in his work’s mail pile. It was a Christmas card from Bart Whitaker.
The card was postmarked December 27, 2006. Inside was a note from Bart that wished the ADA happy holidays. However, Bart also made a reference to how ADA Felcman should pay special attention to his family: I hope you are able to compartmentalize all of the nastiness you are made to see on a daily basis, and concentrate on your family. Felcman thought this could potentially be viewed as a threat to his loved ones.
At the bottom of the card was a quote from the Bible: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.—John 3:16
49
January 22 to March 5, 2007
Fort Bend County Courthouse
Richmond, Texas
The jury selection for Bart Whitaker’s trial would take six weeks. The guilt or innocence phase of the trial—truly an afterthought due to the testimony of Steven Champagne, Adam Hipp, Justin Peters, and Jennifer Japhet, and a sizable amount of evidence against Bart—was a mere formality.
Bart was ably represented by Randy McDonald, and the state of Texas was represented by Fred Felcman and Jeff Strange. While there was much Sturm und Drang during the trial, the reality was that Bart Whitaker would be convicted for the murders of his mother, Tricia Whitaker, and his younger brother, Kevin Whitaker.
Sure enough, on March 5, 2007, the jury took only two and a half hours to declare Bart Whitaker guilty of both murders. The real issue, however, lay in the sentencing phase. The state of Texas sought to make Bart pay the ultimate price for his transgressions—his death. The defense, joined by Bart’s father and most of the rest of the surviving family, would argue to spare his life.
50
March 6, 2007
Fort Bend County Courthouse
Richmond, Texas
One of the key people to step up and defend Bart was his uncle, William “Bo” Bartlett Jr., Tricia’s brother. He was at the trial to represent the Bartlett family, which consisted of “an eighty-three-year-old mother, myself, my wife, and two college-age kids.”
Bo Bartlett was led through his testimony by Bart Whitaker’s defense attorney, Randy McDonald. The veteran attorney asked Bartlett to express himself in regard to how Bart’s actions made him feel.
“It’s all pretty devastating,” the still young-at-heart man spoke quietly. “There’s no doubt about that. It’s just hard to imagine that this happened to our family.” Bartlett described how “blessed” they had been up until that time. “We never expected to be here at this point in our life. It is something we will never, ever get over. As you go on, you learn to manage the pain. You never get over something like this. You just learn to manage the pain that has come about.”
Bartlett shifted about in his chair, trying to find just the right spot to feel comfortable. He added that the murder of his sister had been devastating for his and Tricia’s mother as well.
McDonald wasted no time in getting down to the business at hand: sparing his client the needle. His tactic was to point out the prosecution’s inability, specifically that of Assistant District Attorney Fred Felcman, to settle the case before a trial and to avoid a death sentence for Bart Whitaker. “Did you ever learn of…the communication between Dan Cogdell”—Bart’s first attorney before he was even charged with anything—“and Mr. Felcman?”
Bartlett responded, “In the beginning, we kept trying to work something out where we did not have to drag our family through this, and where the communication broke down, or if either side did not agree to it, it was our whole intent not to be drug up here and be put in this situation we’re in. That was the last thing we wanted to do. We’re a very private family, and to be in this scenario, it’s devastating.”
“Were you concerned with what you had heard as to what you wanted to happen in this case?” McDonald asked.
“What we wanted,” Bartlett replied, “was to accept a life sentence as a plea bargain and to leave us out of this situation.”
McDonald asked about a meeting between himself, Bartlett, John Healey, and Jeff Strange. “Do you know what the purpose of that meeting was?”
“It was just a continuation of the family efforts to meet with the Fort Bend people to try to convince them—actually, I begged them so that we could accept some type of bargain for Bart going to prison for the rest of his life.”
McDonald continued on in the same vein of questioning: mainly trying to decipher why the prosecution was unwilling to accede to the victims’ family members’ wishes. “Did you know at the time that we had offered Mr. Healey anything at all to reassure that Bart would be in the penitentiary for the rest of his life, and that we were willing to do that at that time?”
Bartlett nodded in the affirmative. “We were willing to do that at that time,” he agreed with Bart’s defense attorney, “or what our family’s beliefs were. That’s what we had concluded—as a family, that is what we wanted. We tried to convince them that we did not want to be here.”
“And you were telling them, that was acceptable to you?” McDonald continued.
“That was acceptable to us.”
“In fact, as you said, you were actually begging him to do it?”
“Yes, I actually begged,” Bartlett stated. He then chuckled and added, “I’m not a very good beggar, either.”
The defense attorney awkwardly attempted to switch gears. “Now, obviously, you’re close, or were close, to your sister, Tricia Whitaker?” McDonald frittered horribly.
“Correct,” Bartlett replied rather curtly.
“And how would she feel in this situation?”
“I can tell you exactly how she would feel,” Bartlett responded. “She would not want her son to go to death row, no matter what he’s done. She loved him more than anything else in the whole world. She loved both those boys. Their whole life revolved around family.”
McDonald then asked Bartlett about some of Bart’s codefendants. “Did the situation come up as to what was happening to the shooter, Chris Brashear, in this case
?”
“Yes, it did.”
“Did you become upset when you learned that the state was seeking the death penalty against Bart Whitaker, but not seeking the death penalty against the shooter?”
“Very much so,” Bartlett replied adamantly. He also had no desire for Brashear to receive the death sentence, either. “I think justice needs to be done, but if I don’t want it for the shooter, I surely wouldn’t want it for Bart. That still holds true.” In reference to Brashear, Bartlett added, “I think he needs to go to prison for a long, long time for what he’s done, but, definitely, we don’t want the death penalty for the shooter as well.”
“Did it bother you at the time that they were considering a lesser sentence for the shooter, as opposed to Bart?” McDonald continued the particular line of questioning.
“It still bothers us, because we understand that Bart was the conspirator in this, but still, somebody had to pull the trigger, and in my viewpoint, he’s worse than Bart,” Bartlett responded.
“Do you think it takes a different type of person to be there and actually pull the trigger?” McDonald queried.
“To put a gun to a nineteen-year-old kid’s chest and pull a trigger after he smiled at you”—Bartlett shook his head at the thought of his other nephew, Kevin—“that is one horrible person.”
“Would you agree that Bart Whitaker is a horrible person for being involved in this, causing it to happen, carrying out his part of the conspiracy—would you not?”
“I would feel that he’s a pretty bad person,” Bartlett intoned.
“How do you feel about Bart Whitaker at this time?”
“He’s in trouble. He needs to go to prison for just as long as he can possibly go. We don’t ever expect to see Bart Whitaker out of prison.”
Bartlett continued on about the health of his mother and how an execution of her grandson would have an adverse effect on it. “The death sentence is not only for Bart, it’s for the rest of us. It’s my mother. It’s our family. The stress level that is brought unto us by this is a sentence as well.”
McDonald circled around the witness-box and looked at the jury as he spoke to Bartlett. “So you’re saying that, in spite of all the horrible things that he’s done, that that’s your position? That’s what you want this jury to do?”
Bartlett nodded. “That is our final position.”
McDonald asked Bartlett about Bart’s desire for money. “Did money ever seem like an important thing to Bart?”
“Not any more than any other twenty-, nineteen-, twenty-one-year-old kid.”
Bartlett talked about some of the mistakes his sister may have made in raising the son that eventually had her killed. “When you love your kids, like my sister loved those two boys, we do some stupid things. And we’ve all done that. A lot of parents will stick their head in the ground and think, ‘Well, that’s just part of growing up.’”
The uncle also spoke about the pressure Bart must have felt growing up. “There is a tremendous amount of pressure for kids that grow up with successful parents. My dad was very successful, and it’s hard to follow in a successful parent’s footsteps. It really is. You just have to learn that, sooner or later, you’re going to make your own footsteps and try not to follow in your dad’s footsteps.” He added, “All parents want their kids to do great things, but you have to realize that not all kids are destined to do great things, and the best you can hope for them is to make sure they are happy.”
Bartlett admitted to the court that all of the success in the world could not change his family’s current tragic situation. “There’s so much pressure on making money, so much pressure on having to succeed in business. But it’s just not that important. You can see here that the money that we have successfully worked for, [for] two generations, got us to this point. Let me tell you what—the money is not worth it.”
McDonald asked Bartlett how his sister responded to Bart’s arrest in high school for stealing computers. “She was the ultimate mother and she was so embarrassed. But she brushed herself off, got up, and started all over again. It was devastating for her, but she was not ever going to give up on Bart.”
“Would it be safe to say,” McDonald continued, “that, frankly, she smothered Bart with her love?”
“She was, you know, a mother. All mothers smother their kids. It was always ‘He’s so handsome, he’s so smart, he’s so wonderful’ when she spoke about Bart. Yes, you could say she smothered him.”
McDonald asked about Bartlett’s brother-in-law. “How about your relationship with Kent Whitaker?”
“Poor Kent. You have to feel incredibly sorry for what’s happened to him. I mean, for a year after it happened, he was in total denial. He came to work probably five or six weeks because he had to get his mind on something else. You can’t imagine how it has devastated him and his friends and my sister’s friends. It took Kent a year just to kind of realize what had happened. It probably took him two years to admit to what had happened.”
Bartlett continued to speak highly of his brother-in-law. “The Kent you see now is just an incredibly strong person. I can’t imagine being Kent and having to live the lifestyle that he’s living now, for the amount of pain that he has gone through. I mean, my gosh, how does he get up every day? How has this affected him? You can’t judge Kent until you imagine being in his shoes. I mean, there’s just no way.”
Bartlett admired how Kent treated his sister. “He was a loving husband, he was a loving father. Their lives centered around those two boys. He was excellent in business, and to think how this has devastated him, and where does his life continue after all this? It’s just hard to imagine how he gets up every day and puts his shoes on. He’s a much stronger person than I am.”
The discussion turned toward blame. “There’s no blame that can be placed on any of y’all for this happening,” McDonald posited.
“There’s no blame you can place anywhere,” Bartlett surmised.
“Except at the foot of Bart Whitaker?”
“Knowing Bart my whole life,” Bartlett contemplated aloud, “there were certain signs that now, in hindsight, we could recognize. But let me tell you—growing up—we never saw anything that would lead us to this point. You can ask Tricia’s friends. There was never anything we saw that would lead Bart to this point. Absolutely nothing.” Bartlett shook his head as if stunned. “We knew of some things, but all parents think it’s just a part of growing up, that they’ll simply look the other way this time. But all parents need to think about the bigger picture if something like stealing computers happens.”
“Could it be a cry for help?” McDonald managed to fire off.
“I definitely think—” Bartlett was cut off by Jeff Strange before he could respond.
“Objection. I’m going to object to that as leading and self-serving hearsay.”
“Sustained,” Judge Vacek declared.
McDonald decided it was as good a time as any to wrap things up with Bo Bartlett. He asked if there was anything the grieving brother-in-law wanted to share with the jury.
“I can go back to the same point,” Bartlett reiterated, “that it is important for us to have closure. Closure for us would be a life sentence. Let him go off to prison,” he pleaded, acknowledging Bart’s presence. “Let him be able to think every day, every minute of every day, ‘What a mess I’ve made of my life. What a mess I’ve made of my family’s life.’ That is much more of a closure for us than a death sentence.”
The prosecution knew they needed to navigate a delicate balance between being guardians of the people of the state of Texas and seeking punishment for Bart Whitaker’s actions, while also functioning as decent human beings in regard to Bart’s living relatives. The state wanted Bart dead, while his family, obviously, wanted him alive. It proved to be a difficult moment for the prosecution.
Assistant District Attorney Jeff Strange approached Bo Bartlett. The two had met previously to discuss the case and Bart’s potential plight.
> “Good afternoon, Mr. Bartlett. How are you doing today?” Strange asked in a cordial, easygoing manner.
“Pretty good, Jeff,” Bartlett replied.
“We know each other, and you’ve been kind enough in the past to let me call you Bo, but I’ve got to be a little more formal in court,” he said as he smiled. Bartlett returned it in kind.
Strange then jumped right into the fray. “You’ve known our position for some time now—is that fair to say?”
“Correct,” Bartlett answered.
“And you expressed your concerns, and what your family’s position was, to us sometime ago?”
“Correct.”
“We have continued to visit with you anytime you’ve asked us to, true?”
“Correct.”
“And we’ve also continued to provide appropriate victim-type services to your family, as much as our office could?”
“Very much so.”
“This is not a situation where your family is adversarial. We just disagree on the appropriate outcome of this case?”
“We’re just looking for justice,” Bartlett solemnly replied.
“We just have a different sense of what justice may be in the case,” Strange added. He then switched topics. “Let’s talk about something else before we start talking about this defendant. Nobody has really let us get to know your nephew Kevin and your sister, Patricia, so I think it’s going to fall on you, if that’s okay. It’s my understanding that you and Kevin were particularly close, because you’re both outdoorsmen. Tell us a little bit about your relationship with Kevin.”
Bartlett straightened up in the witness stand’s chair. “I had a great relationship with Kevin.” He smiled slightly. “He liked to hunt, liked to fish. We had a place up in the country, and Kevin would come up there and stay with us. He just enjoyed being outdoors.”
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